The Thai Airways Royal Barge Planes

Note: This is another one of the entries I posted at Wings900 and on my Flickr pages, and I seem to have overlooked doing the same thing on this blog. Better late than never.



The Royal Barge Procession is held in Thailand during very special occasions, usually during celebrations that have something to do with the king. It has a religious significance as well.

In 1999, in celebration of the king's 6th cycle (12 years = 1 birth cycle), Thai Airways painted three of its planes with the image of the two royal barges that are most significant to the current king. The two 747-4D7s, HS-TGJ and HS-TGO were painted with the image of the Royal Barge Suphannahong ('golden swan'). Its bow is adorned with the hongse (head of the swan, with jewels).

HS-TEK, an airbus A330-300, was then painted with the image of the only barge constructed under the current king, the Narai Song Suban. its bow is decorated with the statue of the god Narayana being carried by the Garuda.

In 2002, Thai Airways commissioned Herpa to produce two of the three specially painted planes.

Now we start with the Narai Song Subhan...
Herpa's version has a clear imprint of the Garuda, with the god Narayana behind it:

The pavilion has very intricate details. My camera failed to capture it, but I think it is much clearer in the previous picture.

Note the intricate design of the rear part of the boat design.

In contrast, the StarJets version, which they named simply as "Dragon Boat" has a brownish color.

Further, the pavilion is only a criss-cross pattern without the intricate design.

Now we come to Herpa's version of Suphannahong...

Herpa's version is very well-detailed.

Check out the royal pavilion; note its design.

The rear of the royal barge is very well detailed, too.

Starjets referred to their version simply as the "Royal Barge."

Compared to herpa's, the SJ version has a larger Hongse, and the color is too yellow. Note also, that SJ printed "HARIPHUNCHAL" as the name of the aircraft, when in fact it is "Hariphunchai."

Herpa on the left, and SJ on the right:

And here comes that generic criss-cross again:

Last is the BigBird version...

It is simply too 'red.' Compare it with the SJ on the right.

Again, the generic criss-cross:

Both 747-400s have been repainted into the new mica colors of Thai. Undoubtedly, the Narai Song Subhan's days painted on the A330 are numbered.

Philippine Airlines Inflight Sets

Note: This is one of the entries I posted at Wings900 and on my Flickr pages, and I seem to have overlooked doing the same thing on this blog. Better late than never.


Since 2002, PAL has been selling a set of 1/500 Herpa miniatures through its inflight sale consisting of a 747-400 (N751PR) and a A340-300 (F-OHPJ). It has the Herpa item number 510134. The contents of the set are identical to the regular sales items from Herpa (that were sold separately).

Recently however, the set has been re-editioned and the contents have received a slight upgrade in quality. I'll be making some comparisons between the contents of the two sets.

In this photo, you can note that there are no physical differences in the boxes, except that the new set comes with stands which you can see through the acetate window. Also, the new set is priced USD28 instead of USD26.

From the old set:

1) 747-4F6, registered N751PR.

Note that the windowline towards the nose slopes upwards and ends up being too high! The correct 747 window line should approximate through the vertex of the nosecone.

The tail fins (rudder and elevators) are all made of plastic.

The landing gears are dark gray, and it has the old "herpa Wings" logo on the belly.


2) A340-313X, registered F-OHPJ.

Note the rounded edges of the doors which make it look 'cartoonish.'

The tail fins are likewise made of plastic. The cargo door printing seems a lighter shade (or maybe the line was just thinner) than the printing of the passenger doors.

The belly logo, like in the 747-400, is old-style with "herpa Wings" stamped on. Landing gear struts are dark gray.


From the new set:

1) 747-4F6, registered N751PR [same registration as before].

It comes with a display stand.

The first thing I noticed was the METAL tail! Both the rudder and elevators are made of metal! Also note that the registration is printed much heavier than on the old version.

The belly logo has been updated, with just "herpa" stamped on.


2) A340-313X, registered F-OHPJ [same as before].

The doors look less 'cartoonish' as they have become less rounded on the edges. This model has the correct squarish airbus door profile as can be seen on actual Airbus planes.

The tail section is still made of plastic. To date, herpa has made metal tails only for the airbus A310.

The belly logo has likewise been updated.


Comparisons:

a) Nose section of the 744s:

old = high windowline, dark gray gears;
new = lower windowline, light gray gears.

b) 744 winglets:

old = larger sun/ shorter rays;
new = smaller sun/ shorter rays.

I would like to think the newer one has the correct profile of the rising sun, but it's really too small to notice.

c) 744 tails:

old = plastic, reg printing lighter;
new = all METAL, reg printing heavier.

I have no idea why the metal unit stands higher .

d) 343 nose:

old = rounded doors, heavier printing of windows and door lines;
new = squarish doors, lighter printing of windows (smaller) and door lines.

e) 343 tails:

old = slightly lighter blue
new = blue is a tad darker.

I think all of the above models still have a very pale yellow compare to the originals which have a yellow-orange rising sun.

A followup set would be nice, espeically if it could contain, a) models that have not been made before, such as the A330, A320, A319; b) historic planes like the A300, 747-200 and DC-10; or PAL affiliates like the Air Philippines 737 and PAL Express Q300 and Q400.